Despite the feverish activity in the area and the resulting publicity, there was to be yet another death. A man walked over the cornice at the top of the PYG track on Snowdon and his body was found by two people descending the path.

On the afternoon of the second day another man, scrambling up the track at the side of the Devil's Kitchen, slipped on the snow and fractured his leg. He was attended by Mason, and the R.A.F. took him to hospital. On the third day the team, once again in the vicinity of the Kitchen, found a party of cyclists - in cycling capes and shorts - crawling up the snow on all-fours. They were sensible enough to retreat when they were told what had happened there the day before.

On Easter Day another serious accident was prevented by Mason and his team. He says:

"... several of us were on the summit of Snowdon and to our horror saw a mighty crocodile approaching the cornice at the top of the PYG track. They had one or two ice axes amongst them and a fine array of shorts and blue knees. We hurried down and belayed a couple of ¢hand rails¢ to assist them over the cornice. I was a little surprised the next day to see an article in the paper ... stating that large parties could safely climb in winter conditions on Snowdon when properly conducted."

Over the whole of the Easter period the weather conditions were extremely bad, but the morale of his men, he said, remained excellent.

He continued to build up the team and to instruct them in rock climbing until by the middle of April, three months after his posting, he reckoned he had enough rock climbers to effect any cliff rescue, this despite the fact that the equipment which they had to work with was either of poor quality or totally unsuited to its purpose. They had no sledge stretcher. There were only two headlamps in the team - whereas every member should possess one, apart from spares - and they used storm lanterns instead of pressure lamps for lighting the base tents when on exercise. About this time it was suggested that Mason draw up the new inventory.

He did this with great enthusiasm. He asked for hemp ropes and as much nylon as possible; for a Thomas stretcher and tricouni-nailed boots. He demanded carabiners, map cases, groundsheets (for the big sleeping tent), and pressure lamps. And he pressed for more clothing for the men: two pairs of sea-boot stockings instead of one, proper gloves instead of flying gauntlets. Later that year, during a conference at Air Ministry, this inventory was accepted with the one exception of the Thomas stretcher. However, the following year, when an Aer Lingus Dakota crashed on Moel Siabod, a Thomas was bought with the fifty pounds that the air line presented to the team in recognition of their services. It was at this conference that it was decided to implement his suggestion for improved training. Courses were to be run to train team members in mountaineering and the more technical aspects of mountain rescue. The first of these was scheduled for October 1951.

Mason was not long at Valley but in the short time he was there he turned a poorly-equipped bunch of men into a competent mountain rescue team. Colin Pibworth (Pib) who was with him then, and afterwards became N.C.O. in charge at Khormaksar, says of him: Continue to page 9